About

The Journal of Special Pleading collects examples where positions in arguments introduce certain favorable details or exclude certain unfavorable details to explain why a particular phenomenon, case or event is except from what might otherwise be considered “proper criticism.”

While described as a logical fallacy by its detractors, special pleading (also known as “stacking the deck”) is a valuable argumentative tool to safeguard exceptional claims from critical audiences.

Inspired and born during an episode of Virtual Skeptics, the JoSP aims to catalog these pleadings for a curious audience.